Mayor Says Spitzer Now Agrees With Him on Listing of 9/11 Names

By DANNY HAKIM

Published: February 23, 2007

Gov. Eliot Spitzer's administration has backed away from from remarks the governor made earlier this week that suggested there would be further discussions about how to arrange the names of the dead at the 9/11 memorial.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who is the chairman of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, has said that the foundation executive committee has already settled the matter. The mayor said that after talking to the governor on Wednesday, the two men appeared to be in agreement.

''I had a long conversation with Governor Spitzer the other day, yesterday, explaining to him what we've done,'' the mayor said at an appearance on Thursday. ''You'll have to ask him his views, but the Memorial Foundation's the one that makes the decision. They've done that and we're going to go ahead with that.''

Some family and firefighter groups have continued to object to the organization of names at the memorial. They are seeking the inclusion of more details alongside the names than the foundation plan allows, including ages, where people worked and the ranks for uniformed workers.

But both the mayor's plan and the alternative put forth arrange the names of the 2,979 victims on parapets around the memorial pools marking the locations of the twin towers. Both proposals set uniformed rescue workers apart, arrayed by company or unit.

Mr. Spitzer had said on Tuesday, at a news conference announcing his support for the construction of the Freedom Tower, that there was still room to discuss the names issue.

''It is something that we will try to work through at the right time and the right place and get to a resolution that satisfies everybody,'' he said.

But a spokeswoman for the governor said Thursday that the subsequent conversation with the mayor had ''provided greater clarity'' about the situation. The spokeswoman, Christine Anderson, said the mayor had explained how the foundation had made its decision.

''The conversation provided greater clarity about those deliberations,'' she said.